More years ago than I care to admit, a firm with which I was affiliated got a great deal on some office space in Cherry Hill. It was only after I moved in that I came to realize why an otherwise quaint office building in a vibrant business district was largely empty: it had been the scene of a mass shooting and murder by a deranged ex-employee.
Apparently, six years before I occupied the space, one Edwin James Grace parked his car behind the building and calmly entered through the rear door of the two-story structure. Ascending the stairs in the building’s center hall, he turned left and walked into the reception area of an employment agency with which he had been associated. Raising his firearm, he shot the receptionist in the head and proceeded to open fire at will. When the shooting ceased, twelve people (including the gunman) were dead or critically injured.
The police, summoned by tenants who had escaped via first and second floor windows, surrounded the building bombarding it with teargas. It was only when law enforcement and emergency medical personnel entered and began transporting victims to the hospital that they realized that the perpetrator was among the dead, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Ultimately, nine people would lose their lives as a result of the events of that day.
That tragedy, occurring as it did more than thirty years ago, is just one of a litany of documented workplace shooting rampages that have occurred in the United States. During the last 100 years, hundreds of deaths and injuries can be attributed to these senseless acts. These occurrences have become so commonplace and have so often involved United States Postal Service (USPS) workers that the expression “Going Postal†has been coined to describe such behaviors.
Today, yet another mass shooting occurred, not in a postal facility but in a Connecticut warehouse where a driver, asked to resign his position with a beer distributor for an undisclosed violation of company policy, opened fire reportedly killing nine (including himself) and injuring a number of others. The identities of the perpetrator and his victims have yet to be revealed.
Although in this instance the perpetrator’s motives seem reasonably clear, many cases, like the one in Cherry Hill I described above, are never fully resolved, as the murderers often commit suicide or are killed by police at the crime scenes. What seems obvious, however, is that this type of violence, whether at a workplace, educational institution, military installation, or other venue, appears to be on the rise.
Violent and lawless acts are becoming commonplace, even in those areas and neighborhoods considered among the safest. The threats of terrorism, gang violence, and crimes against individuals and society have invaded the American consciousness, robbing many of the sense of security that they once held. And, the events of today in Manchester, Connecticut will only go to reinforce the growing sense of public alarm.Â
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Some time ago, my husband worked for a major financial-investment firm. A man in another dept. lost a promotion to a woman and that man claimed that it was a case of gender discrimination. He made such a fuss, hollering and disrupting everyone’s work, that he was terminated. A guard appeared at his desk with a large German Shepherd (as was the company’s policy in such cases). The man was told to empty his desk was the guard and dog watched him. He was then escorted out of the building and to his car.
The following week, this sick person returned with a loaded rifle. He got as far as the lobby of the building. It took 5 security officers to wrestle him down; disarm him and thank God, no one was hurt.
I wish people who do such things would just kill themselves and not others. I hate it that they take innocent people with them.
I was a little girl growing up in Cherry Hill and attending St. Peter Celestine Catholic School (now Resurrection) right across the street from the Heritage Building when this tragedy took place. One of the men killed was Charlie Merkel. Mr. Merkel was our neighbor – he lived two houses up the block from us. He and his wife had 3 boys and 1 girl, all around my age. Two of the boys were older than me, Timmy is my younger sister’s age, and Kelly Ann was just a baby at the time. I remember it happened in June, but I don’t recall the year. It was right around my sister’s birthday. That’s why I remember the month. We were too young for the adults to tell us what happened, but we sensed it was really bad. There was a lot of crying. What’s so remarkable is that at the time, this was unprecedented. Today, it’s commonplace. How sad for our society.